The program provides scholarships to Brazilian students for one year of study at host colleges and universities including CU-Boulder. Scholarships are given primarily to students in the STEM fields, and after two semesters and an internship, the students return to Brazil to complete their degrees.

“Coming to the U.S. to study at CU-Boulder gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about my major, not only as a student, but also as an engineering teaching assistant,” said Victor Sabioni, an aerospace engineering student from the Universidade de Federal de minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. “It also gave me the chance to work for the Boeing company for two months.”

Sabioni is completing his second semester at CU-Boulder.

“Studying here is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that changed my entire future,” said Sabioni. “I’m very excited to go back to Brazil and engage on projects that demand the best of what I’ve learned here. After all, we need to always challenge ourselves to get the best out of every opportunity.”

Over the past year, IIE has been working closely with the Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States and Brazil, U.S. universities and other entities to place the scholarship students through the program, which was announced in 2011. CU-Boulder became a host in the spring of 2012.

“The students are studying with their peers, living in university housing and experiencing life in Colorado and the U.S.,” said Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education and associate vice chancellor for Summer Session and Outreach and Engagement.

“CU-Boulder students, whether they’re from the San Luis Valley, San Francisco or São Paulo, will benefit from the enriched classroom conversations and experiences enabled by these programs,” said Heinz. “These collaborations foster our future as a global society, and we look forward to CU-Boulder’s continued participation in this program.”

More than 1,900 Brazilian undergraduate scholarship students have been placed at 238 U.S. host institutions in 46 U.S. states as of the fall 2012 semester, according to IIE.

Other top U.S. host institutions credited in the report include the University of California, Davis and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The United States currently hosts the largest number of the Brazilian scholarship students, followed by France, Portugal and Spain. The program is projected to enroll 2,500 students per academic year for the next five years of the program.

Photo: Victor Sabioni, a Scientific Mobility student from Brazil who's completing his second semester in aerospace engineering at CU-Boulder, says the experience is changing his entire future.